Wednesday, February 27, 2008

"Standing athwart history, yelling 'Stop' "


Willian F Buckley is dead.

I literally grew up reading his columns, starting at about the sixth grade, and continued to read them 'til present day. Nobody has done more to influence my views and inform my thinking than this great intellectual.
He taught me a lot, and is the primary reason why I grew up as a conservative in a family dominated by blue-collar Democrats as the odd man out, the 'where did we go wrong?', whenever dinner talk turned to politics.
But there was more than just politics on his mind. He was also deeply spiritual, raised in a strict Catholic home where a man was taught to find his strength on his knees. A faith he kept in his heart, and defended with his intellect. A good autobiography he wrote, and my favorite book of his, "Nearer,My God" is something any Catholic man can appreciate.

A lot more can be said about him, but you'll hear and see plenty of it on the news if you care to listen. For myself, this is a dark day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

RIP - A good man.

VLW said...

I was really sad when I heard that.